Eden Intelligence

Eden Intelligence organises small scale secret gatherings on counter-terrorism and security related issues. Its goal is to facilitate a closed dialogue amongst the security and counter-terrorism community's leading experts. Its aim is to 'deliver these experts as speakers, panelists and audience participants.' It also has a strong fundraising agenda to direct resources into academic research and provide specialists trained along specific lines.

Eden Intelligence is complemented by an 'Energy Security' company Eden Energy: intended as a vehicle to interpret and analyse information regarding security issues related to the global energy markets. Their research concerns are:

• The current situation and trajectory, such as oil & gas production data, economic or societal clues to decline profiles, and relevant institutional pronouncements - with relation to security issues.

• Security and Terrorist trends with regards to the energy target, including motivations, techniques, technologies, operational tactics and strategies.

• Any other security related issues which assist our understanding of the broader implications of geo-political factors on the global energy markets.

They construct a 'global relationship' between security and energy (oil, gas, nuclear and other) that links the global energy system, security issues, and global economic progress in order to be a 'thought leader' in developing the terrorist studies and counter-terrorism agenda. It raises awareness on particular issues and dilemmas through presentations, analyses and lectures. On top of this a long running objective is to co-ordinate round table meetings to gather players of specific fields or areas of concern to enable a dialogue in an information sharing, conducive environment closed to the scrutiny of independent academics and those out side the sphere of vested interests.

Eden Intelligence make something of a fetish of secrecy:

INVITATION ONLY EVENT - UNDER STRICT CHATHAM HOUSE RULES* – CLOSED MEETING

• No identification of attendees, no quoting or attribution or remarks, no reference outside the meeting

We take extremely seriously the secrecy and confidentiality of our meetings.

All participants are vetted. All attend on the understanding that there is no reporting of the meeting’s

proceedings, quoting or attribution of comments, and no identification of the attendees without their

explicit permission. We seek no publicity for the event.

Please note the CONTRAST to meetings held under normal Chatham House Rules. These

allow for quotation of podium remarks and reference being made to the meeting itself.

Operational or classified matters WILL NOT be discussed at this meeting, but to permit a full debate

of the issues all participants must feel comfortable in being able to express opinions openly and raise

sensitive detail.

The Conference Chairmen was Paul Wilkinson, Chairman of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St Andrews

Directors

• Gavin McNicoll, Director and Founder.
• Giulio Thuburn, Head of Eden Intelligence Energy Security Research: M.A. in International Relations from St. Andrews University with honours in Intelligence, Terrorism, Conflict in the Middle East and the Politics of War, his dissertation was on the transition from militia order to political party representation in Lebanon. Also has an MSc in Energy, Trade and Finance from Cass Business School, City University. His thesis dealt with the impact of terrorism on the oil industry and the oil markets; and he has now become a specialist in the area of energy security. Thuburn held positions with the Council of Ministers of Europe, with ANSA - Italian National News agency in their Middle East offices in Beirut, with CSTPV - as a desk officer for Middle East issues and finally with Eden Intelligence helping to co-ordinate their Energy Security research program. He has also worked on financial projects in the energy sector and lectures regularly on energy security.
• Phil O'Brien, Director and Shareholder of EI, Managing Director of Concise Ltd., a £3.5m turnover company with a Consulting and IT services organisation focused on the Financial Services and Media sectors, with subsidiaries in Amsterdam, New York and Sydney.

Advisory Board

• Afzal Ashraf was brought up and educated in London. His first degree was a BSc in Aeronautical Engineering, following which he worked on military aircraft design research and development for British Aerospace. In 1982, he was commissioned in the Royal Air Force and reached the rank of Wing Commander during which time he filled a variety of operational and staff appointments. Most recently, he was on the Multi National Force Iraq staff, based in Baghdad, where he contributed to the development of a political, military and economic strategy for Iraq. Ashraf has a Masters in Defence Studies from Kings College London and is currently doing a PhD at St Andrews university (CSTPV). His topic of research is Al Qaeda’s ideology.
• The Right Honourable Sir John Wheeler, JP, DL, is the Chairman of the UK government review into airport security with particularly with reference to the role of the police, and last year was appointed Chairman, the Australian Federal government review. Deputy Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office 1993 - 1997 he was Minister of State for Security and for the Criminal Justice System and Finance Minister. He served as a Member of Parliament 1979 - 1997 and on the Home Affairs Select Committee from 1979 – 1992, as Chairman 1987 – 1992. During this time 67 reports were produced including several inquiries into criminal justice and police policy issues, and in 1988 he delivered the recommendation to set up the National Criminal Intelligence Service. He was Chairman of The Service Authorities for the NCIS and the National Crime Squad from 1997 - 2002. He was appointed a Member of the Privy Council in 1993 and a Member and Trustee of the Chapter General of the Order of St John and St John’s Ambulance in 1990 and has served as Chancellor from 2002.
• Dr. Magnus Ranstorp, is Chief Scientist at the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College and a Senior Honorary Research Associate and former Director of CSTPV. He is internationally recognised as a leading expert on Hizballah, Hamas, al-Qaeda and other militant Islamic movements. Ranstorp regularly advises governments, security organisations and the armed services of many nations on issues including the drafting of legislation. Among other major achievements, he has been credited with persuading the Israeli Government to withdraw from Lebanon in March 2000. He was CNN's principal consultant on terrorism before and after 9/11.
• Paul Wilkinson is professor of International Relations and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the CSTPV. From 1979 to 1989 he was Professor of I.R. at Aberdeen and was visiting Fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge 1979 - 1998. Publications include: Political Terrorism (1974); Terrorism and the Liberal State (1977/1986); The New Fascists (1981/1983); Contemporary Research on Terrorism (as co-editor, 1987); Aviation Terrorism and Security (as co-editor, 1999) and Terrorism versus Democracy: The Liberal State Response (2001). His latest publication, co-authored with Joseph S. Nye Jr. and Yukio Satoh is Addressing The New International Terrorism; Prevention, Intervention and Multilateral Co-operation, a report to the Trilateral Commission, (May 2003). He is co-editor of Terrorism and Political Violence, and director of an ESRC project on domestic management of terrorist attacks in the UK. He served as Adviser to Lord Lloyd of Berwick's Inquiry into Legislation Against Terrorism, and authored vol. two, the Research Report for the Inquiry (1996).